Trimming in Flowering

[really comfy slippers]

Im 10 days into 12/12 and my girls are showing strong hairs everywhere and i even have tiny buds starting already!! they were taken from clone and i let them veg for a month. acouple weeks into veg i trimmed 1/3 up on them. Now you can barely tell i trimmed them ever!

ive read everywhere that trimming durring flowering is a no no, but i have branches growing under the canopy. They are healthy as can be though, with strong creamy hairs. Should i get rid of these to focus on top? or leave them to make more bud sites? If i leave them on, will it take from the main cola? Will i loose yeild trimming them?

By the way, the strain im working with here is Exile

Thanks!!!

 

[really comfy slippers]

need someone experienced here to drop some knowlage

 

[cowell]

I lollipop my plants 3-4 weeks of flower. Not usually after that. After the initial stretch is done, the plant will focus more energy on producing buds.. if you remove some of the budsites, the plant will compensate at the remaining sites to make up for it.

EDIT: - you also don't get "more bud".. works out to abut the same weight you would get without trimming, but you don't have all the popcorn shit to trim.

Also, never grown Exile, but it obviously responded ok to the first round of cutting if you can't tell you did it -

 

[kbo ca]

i take off the lower branches in flowering because i grow in a SOG (sea of green) method. This focuses bud production at the part of the canopy that gets the most light. Since you are just over a week into flower it wouldn't hurt to take off the lower branches that won't produce very large flowers. By lollipopping my plants, i can fit a larger number of plants in my flowering area, which increases my yield. I also don't have to deal with small popcorn nugs that are difficult to trim and aren't appealing to smokers. On your next round try topping your plant early in veg to encourage branching and remove the lower branches early on so that the focus of growth is at the tops before you even begin to flower. Good luck! Respect

 

[really comfy slippers]

Cowell you say that the plants will compensate for the trim at a main site... But how are you sure the main site wasn't just growing big in the first place? So if I gradually cut everything secondary off, all main sites will be grow huge? Thanks for the help guys!

 

[LBH]

Plan ahead and all that popcorn can be real bud

Making popcorn into real bud part 1

Making popcorn into real bud part 2

Cowell has an excellent point, if you do decide to do this, you don't get more weight, just less trimming. The risk of a herni isn't worth the time saved for some but for others with larger grows,...heck yea.

 

[really comfy slippers]

LBH you are a god. Very good read. My next grow room I will be using your tutorial, 4way lst & the scrog. Just dont have the room now..

 

[cowell]

Cowell you say that the plants will compensate for the trim at a main site... But how are you sure the main site wasn't just growing big in the first place? So if I gradually cut everything secondary off, all main sites will be grow huge? Thanks for the help guys!

Maybe poor choice of words.. I try and keep shit simple, but that doesn't always translate into me explaining what I mean well.
Not to sound condescending or to over-simplify - I'll just start at the start - assuming you don't know this already.
Each plant has a "genetic make-up".
That's why we pick and choose the right plant to keep as mothers.. once we find the right genetic make up that provides the best plant to suit our needs.
So basically each plant has - at it's genetic level- an "amount" of bud it will produce if the conditions are at a certain level.
So you veg it long enough so it is mature, you flower it in whatever your conditions.. good or bad.. that plant will produce a certain amount of weed.
For arguement sake - let's say in a "good room" your plant produces a lb. and in a "bad room" 1/4lb. Just meaning conditions are right in each room to produce your result.
If you have the plant in the "good room" and leave all the lower branches on, you will have 1 lb of primo - Popcorn, decent bud, and your top colas

in the same room with the same plant, you take off the lower branches before the plant produces it's bud(it's got hormones ready to start producing those flowers).. it'll still produce 1lb.. maybe a little more - as you will have more light getting to your buds but now you'll have some decent fat nugs and your main cola's will be way bigger.. no popcorn...same weight.

The hormones in the plant dictate how big it grows - how much bud it will produce, etc.. but it's only relative to the conditions it's grown in.
You're plant in the "bad room".. if you lollipop it, you'll still get an increase in bud.. but not much.. still 1/4 lb.. but again, you'll have it in bigger nugs and colas without the popcorn.
Don't "gradually" cut them off.. take them off at the same time... you will shock the plant but it has time to recover.

 

[LBH]

in other words, he loses the ounce of popcorn but his lrg buds up top swell a little exra each to equal,....about an ounce. So it's a draw, but he's doing a lot less trimming (because it's all lrg bud and no popcorn)(Popcorn takes forever to trim, PITA)

 

[cowell]

in other words, he loses the ounce of popcorn but his lrg buds up top swell a little exra each to equal,....about an ounce. So it's a draw, but he's doing a lot less trimming (because it's all lrg bud and no popcorn)(Popcorn takes forever to trim, PITA)

Thank you.. yes that's what I'm trying to get at.

 

[really comfy slippers]

Thanks so much guys.. Im gonna trim those off tomorrow, and plan accordingly my next grow.. I'll be looking into gentics closely from now on too.